What is hidden agenda?

Editor,

As a community member and education advocate, I have been attending County Commissioner meetings and Board of Education meetings. What I see happening is very disturbing.

The Board of Education has worked diligently to share with the County Commissioners the budget information they requested. However, the commissioners wanting the school system to totally rewrite their budget in a new form that does not meet the state requirements for school budgeting is totally unreasonable. In addition, it seems like the funding cuts a Maintenance of Effort budget necessitated were punishment not needed. The commissioners might want to remember when they do this, they are not punishing the adults but the students of Worcester County.  This fight appears to be continuing this year with more cuts threatened by the commissioners.  Is this good for our students? Is this good for our community? No.

Then we come to what our law enforcement community is doing to try to undermine community confi­dence in the schools. The Board of Education has been working with law-enforcement to address safety concerns over the past year. Why then did the sheriff and the state’s attorney publicly share suspect data on school safety?  This release of specific incidents seems inappropriate since we are talking about juveniles. Our students are children and all of them deserve to be supported to meet success not to be treated like criminals.

What is the real agenda of the commissioners, the sheriff, and the state’s attorney?  Our schools have had an excellent reputation with student success for decades.  Why are county officials now trying to undermine this success?

Joan Roache
Ocean City
(The writer is a Team Leader for the Strong Schools Worcester County group.)